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President Trump will sign an executive order to allow local police departments to receive or purchase military surplus equipment:
Police departments will now have access to military surplus equipment typically used in warfare, including grenade launchers, armored vehicles and bayonets, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Monday, describing it as "lifesaving gear."
The move rescinds limits on the Pentagon handouts that were put in place by President Barack Obama in 2015 amid a national debate over policing touched off by a spate of high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of the police, including the shooting death in 2014 of 18-year-old Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo., by a white officer. Some local residents viewed police use of military equipment during the ensuing protests as an unnecessary show of force and intimidation.
In a speech to the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, Mr. Sessions said Mr. Obama had made it harder for the police to protect themselves and their neighborhoods. "Those restrictions went too far," Mr. Sessions said. "We will not put superficial concerns above public safety."
Mr. Sessions said that President Trump would sign an executive order on Monday fully restoring the military program, called 1033, and that the president was doing "all he can to restore law and order and support our police across the country." [...] The program was started in the 1990s as a way for the military to transfer surplus equipment to federal, state and local police agencies fighting the drug war. More than $5 billion in surplus gear has been funneled to law enforcement agencies.
Organized gangs get to play soldier.
Also at The Hill and USA Today.
(Score: 5, Touché) by RamiK on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:49PM (5 children)
Maybe what they should do is sell some field artillery to truck drivers and woodcutters. Or really, anyone else in the top 10 most dangerous jobs: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/04/the-10-most-dangerous-jobs-for-men.html [cnbc.com]
Just saying, I never heard about a logger getting killed while driving an APC. Like, never.
Safety first boys. Safety first.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:49PM (4 children)
Out of mod points.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0, Informative) by aristarchus on Tuesday August 29 2017, @09:07PM (3 children)
Me, too! (Wait, no, this is not spam, it is a very informational post about the status of aristarchus mod points, seriously!)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 29 2017, @09:33PM (2 children)
You're currently as "out of mod points" as I'm "out of horny virgin top models".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @09:43PM
whoa you have some to spare, you mean?
I gotta start subscribing
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 30 2017, @10:50AM
"Skinny models you can keep those / I like big corn fed Midwestern hos" -- Kid Rock
My rights don't end where your fear begins.